The darkness had made everything hard to perceive but didn't make things hard to feel.
A strong wind pushed against Ivory's body to the point it had become painful.
She imagined that the air resistance in this new area was desperately trying to slow her fall but it was to no avail.
The young woman went faster and faster through the air steadily approaching the bottom.
Ivory clenched her teeth, "What if there's no air to slow me down at the bottom. Should I really have taken the gamble of jumping in this hole?"
She opened her eyes partially to look around her but there was nothing in her line of sight. The darkness had enshrouded everything.
The people around her, including Ronan, almost vanished from thin air.
Screams surrounded her and were quickly cut off. It was almost like some of them had been taken out of the air and placed somewhere else.
Just where did everyone go? Why was she still falling?
Ivory grimaced while peering at the stone floorboard that was steadily approaching her.
Ivory closed her eyes, "Please slow my fall somehow. Please slow my fall."
The young woman was only 30 ft away from her demise. She didn't feel the need to participate in a trust fall for Lyra.
As Ivory was about to use her abilities to try to slow her fall down.
She closed her eyes and upon opening them, she was no longer falling in darkness but instead standing in it.
Ivory stumbled while tripping over herself onto the floor, "Wasn't I just falling?"
In the darkness, faint neon lights could be seen toward the end of the room. The neon lights seem to be coming out of glowing targets in a set of different colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.
Above the targets, the number zero was displayed in white text.
Ivory says, "This is a part of the test isn't it?"
Lyra's voice echoed throughout the room at that instant, "Hello trainees and welcome to room 101. You might be quite confused as to why you're here or maybe you've put the pieces together already. This is where your next and last immediate test will begin."
Ivory looked around. The older woman's voice was radiating around the room. She felt the vibrations from the older woman's voice almost hit her with a large cluster of sound.
Lyra pauses before saying, "I'm sure most of you have been to an arcade or carnival pre-shift. This will be pretty similar. Destroy the targets, aim for the bullseye to gain more points, and bonus points will be given to those who destroy a target right after it rematerializes."
A carnival or arcade game? It had been so long since she had played a game like that. Why would Lyra make everyone play this game as part of a test?
Lyra says, "The point totals are the following for accomplishing each condition. Destroying the target is one hundred points, hitting the bullseye is two hundred points, and the rematerialization bonus is fifty additional points to whatever condition you meet."
Point totals? Was Lyra taking this information to assess all of their skill levels?
Lyra says with an eerily cheerful tone, "The individual who has the most points by the end will be given a special privilege. I can assure you, it will be worth the hassle to obtain. Best of luck trainees, you all will have five minutes before I pull you out of the test. Remember to take this seriously, these scores will contribute to your placement."
Ivory says under her breath, "Special privilege? What did that even mean? Was it an excuse to have everyone try their absolute best to gain a more accurate assessment of their abilities?"
Lyra says, "Let the test begin."
The older woman's voice disappeared and the darkness was filled with several moving neon targets going through their cycle of colors.
In a split second these objects turned into a bright red hue reminding her of a time when her mind and body weren't in sync. A space not too long ago where eyes carefully watched her and she wasn't fully in control.
The sunburn sensing Ivory's apprehension began to activate on its own. Her glowing blue eyes began to fixate on each of the targets one by one.
Ivory made a finger gun toward one of the targets as a huge icicle uncontrollably shot out of her fingers. The target was destroyed instantly and the number zero above turned into one hundred.
The neon targets began moving faster in a counter clockwise rotation and were becoming even more hard to track with her eyes.
Ivory's hand shook. She couldn't do this. There was no way she could. The experience needed to do well in this test was something she didn't have.
She shook her head. Time was running out slowly in the background. What could she do?
In that instance an idea hit her.
Ivory mutters under her breath, "Not too long ago, Faye had skewered those street vendors by making her ability, make long thorns appear out of the ground. What if she somehow tried to replicate this with her ice ability?"
Ivory held out both of her hands and made large icicles come out of the ground destroying all of the targets in front of her.
Her large icicles had disappeared instantly from the room while her point total had gone up to six hundred.
This room must have had a mystical property to get rid of any foreign materials created in the space.
Ivory smiled weakly, "It worked."
The young woman tried to take a breath but she felt like air wouldn't go back into her body without her heart pumping rapidly.
She was completely out of breath.
Ivory took a second to desperately try to breathe.
Her eyes were watering from this familiar yet annoying situation.
Her body wasn't used to this amount of physical strain even though it could theoretically accomplish it under the right conditions.
Similarly to someone who could lift a heavy weight for multiple repetitions due to their genetics but reaching failure due to inexperience.
Ivory weakly lifted one of her arms from the ground to try to shoot another of the targets but her icicle had barely missed the target.
Six targets being destroyed had made these objects remove themselves from their preordained path and move sporadically throughout the room.
The young woman stood up slowly and tried her best to concentrate.
She had to hit a few more targets. Her score right now would most likely be too low to be acceptable.
Ivory held out both of her hands while shaking intensely.
The young woman spun around weakly while Icicles shot from every one of her finger tips in a desperate attempt to hit more targets.
Four more of the targets had been destroyed.
Ivory fell to the ground onto her knees while the point total above changed to one thousand.
Lyra's voice echoes throughout the room, "Times up."
Ivory fell onto her back while wheezing, "Finally."
Crack. Crack. Crack.
What was that sound?
A crackling sound rippled throughout the room.
She closed her eyes while laying on the ground inhaling and exhaling slowly.
Upon opening her eyes, Ivory had once again been brought to a new space.
The room had long grey tables, chairs, a green white board, and many other amenities that were similar to what would be in a classroom.
The room was filled with individuals she didn't recognize.
A vague sketch of a device, labeled G.S. at the bottom was shown on the board.
An instructor stood near the board with short white hair, round red glasses, wearing a military outfit similar to Lyra.
The teacher glanced toward her absentmindedly, "You're in the wrong room."
The older women acted like this was a common occurrence. Had this happened before or was it just not that surprising to her?
Ivory looked around the room for a moment and found a familiar face she had desperately wanted to see this entire time.
Her hands began to tremble.
Abigail was sitting in the middle row of the class with a perplexed look on her face upon seeing her.
How did she end up here? Her friend must have thought.
There was so much to talk about but this wasn't the right time...
Ivory's voice trembled, "I... how do I leave?"
The longer she stood in the classroom, the more her entire body trembled. In the past classrooms were nothing but a graveyard housing students that gave up on their dreams. A place that broke children's hearts and the next generation's hopes.
The instructor took out a small glass display from her pocket. She motioned the class with her pointer finger to wait a second while she sorted out this issue.
Ivory couldn't help but look toward her friend again who had a cold expression present on her face, replacing her perplexed expression from a minute ago.
Did she really hate her that much?
In a few taps of a screen, Ivory was sent back to where she belonged.
A blinding white light hits her face and causes her to wipe her eyes instinctively.
Where was she now?
There was a gigantic, black and white rock climbing wall in which all the sunburn users had huddled under.
Everyone turned to face her as she slowly made her way toward the crowd, avoiding their gazes.
Lyra says, "Perfect. Now that everyone is here. We can begin."
What would they be starting?
Lyra looks toward her glass display, "I will group you all together based on your point totals from the last test."
Ivory in that moment stared toward the rock climbing wall.
Would they be rock climbing? How would doing that help any of them learn how to use their abilities better?
Lyra says, "Those who scored one hundred to five hundred points, you will be considered butchers. Six hundred to one thousand points, you will be considered knights. One thousand one hundred points or above, will be considered rulers."
Iris raises her hand, "Why are we getting grouped together?"
Lyra gestures toward the wall, "To participate in one last exercise I have for you all today. It will be beneficial for all of you to do. Trust me."
Iris proposed a good question. Just what was Lyra going to make them do on this rock climbing wall?
There was no way it was just ordinary rock climbing right? There had to be some sort of twist.
Lyra smiles, "Before splitting you off into groups, I will now announce who will gain the special privilege I mentioned before."
Lyra coughs while scrolling through the ranking list on her glass display, "The person who scored the highest amount of points and will gain a special privilege is Byron."
Ivory's jaw dropped.
The drunk man who didn't seem to showcase an ounce of responsibility. The person who showed up to the first training session, intoxicated?
That person really? Were these results accurate?
Byron scratches his head, "What's my special privilege?"
Lyra says, "You can skip any activity of your choice as long as it's not a test."
Byron shrugs and turns away from the crowd, "I'm out then for today Lyra. Get me back to the surface."
In a few clicks on her glass display. Byron vanished from thin air.
The sunburn users huddled near the rock climbing wall were in awe.
How did this device really function to both be able to remove and add people to these different spaces?
Lyra chuckles seeing everyone's reactions, "This large scale device is the underground city's greatest tool. A series of rooms able to be synced with our hivemind devices to be able to both add and remove any sunburn user to any of these spaces we can choose from down here."
This device synced with the hivemind device. How did any of this technology really work?
Lyra scratches her chin, "I wonder what we would have done if Sam hadn't discovered it?"
Lyra shakes her head, "A story for another time. Byron left, now everyone that remains, prepare to be placed in groups for the last activity of the day."